Most Mississippi cities are electing mayors this year, and some party primaries have incumbents in tough re-election races. In Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson Jr. is seeking a fourth term and faces nine other Democrats, including Council member and attorney Chokwe Lumumba, shown in this Sept. 14, 2010 photograph The Democratic primary is likely to be decided in a runoff. No Republican is in the race, but the Democratic nominee will face three independents in the general election. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis)

“I think we just had a very difficult fight in order to win this office and we came out successful,” Lumumba said from his victory party at the Clarion Hotel. “I’m very proud of all of the people in my campaign who worked so diligently and I’m very proud of the people of Jackson because I think the people of Jackson have spoken and spoken very clearly.”

Lumumba served four years on the Jackson City Council before running for mayor. He spent part of the ’70s and ’80s as vice-president of the Republic of New Afrika, an organization which advocated for “an independent predominantly black government” in the southeastern United States and reparations for slavery.

“The provisional government of Republic of New Afrika was always a group that believed in human rights for human beings,” Lumumba told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “I think it has been miscast in many ways. It has never been any kind of racist group or ‘hate white’ group in any way…. It was a group which was fighting for human rights for black people in this country and at the same time supporting the human rights around the globe.”